Monta Ellis plays Super Nintendo games while he travels

At first, I thought, it’s weird that Monta Ellis would want to play Super Nintendo games. But then I thought, wait, Ellis is 26. He’s the exact age of people who really enjoyed Super Nintendo in the past 20 years. And NBA Live 96 was probably the finest NBA Live game ever made.

How cool is that thing? I’m wondering if I’m super behind the times right now. (Photo: Tobias Harris)

Tobias Harris snapped this picture of Ellis yesterday apparently on the plane as the Bucks traveled 30 minutes across the state of Wisconsin to La Crosse to take on the Memphis Grizzlies. The Bucks lost the game, but we can see that Ellis was the real winner yesterday. Or whatever day he bought this thing.

The thing is called a SupaBoy apparently and it’s a portable SNES console.

More importantly, in NBA Live 96 if you went to the create a player mode and typed in Michael Jordan or Kareem Abdul-Jabar, it created them for you! It was like NBA 2K12’s Legends modes, but 16 years ahead of it. No wonder Ellis is still messing with it 16 years later. As someone who still plays College Hoops 2K8 on my PS3, I salute the Bucks guard for his loyalty to a superior game.

Blasphemy! You sir, are a charlatan and a probate! Live ’97 is where it’s at. More unique sprites for players, more frames of animation, more dunks, guards have a crossover move, there’s a 3-point contest and a deeper season mode. And the announcer shouts “THREE!!!” every time you stroke one.